


Your questions answered (non-fiction work!)

by Mossgreen



Category: 2770 ab urbe condita - Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Gen, Meta, Questions, non-fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-02 18:27:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19447084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mossgreen/pseuds/Mossgreen
Summary: A non-fiction post answering some questions I've been asked in the year since I began writing this series/collection.We'll return to our regularly-scheduled ficcage shortly!





	Your questions answered (non-fiction work!)

I was going through some stuff I've saved because I want to post some of my character thoughts on Willow, Moss and Junio - and looking at it, I really could do with adding in things about Petrus, Icarus and Grumio. And this FAQ stuff was at the beginning of the document. I figured I ought to post it where people can read it. (The last question shows just how long ago I wrote this...) Some of these question have been answered in various comments, but as it's been a year since I posted Cave Dominum, I figured it was a good time to put this up.

If you have a question that's not answered, please comment below! I'll answer it in a reply to your comment, and probably edit the main post to include it there, too.

**Where did the names Ven, Moss and Willow come from – they don't seem Roman at all!**  
You're quite right, they're not Roman! When I first started writing these stories, I hadn't even named the principal character, but 'the slave' and 'the master' got a bit too hard to differentiate – which 'he' did I mean at what point? I'd written the vast majority of one story (which became the basis for Party Time) before I actually named the slave Ven, and then I slotted that name into a bunch of other stories and scenes I'd written ('In Torment' and 'Present for Priapus' among them). It was with these other stories that the world of a modern version of the Roman Empire began to coalesce, but I couldn't rename Ven with a more appropriately Roman name. 

Willow and Moss likewise were named before I'd settled clearly on the 21st century Ancient Rome setting.

The master (Drusus Varius Metellus) took a long time to be named for the simple reason that when I began posting, I still had three different possible images in my head for what he looked like, though his appearance has settled down somewhat now, so I may yet give a description and a name for him, thought at the moment he's still very much 'Schrödinger's DVM' because I still have two distinct possibilities for his age and overall look in my head.

 **Why a modern version of Ancient Rome?**  
I'd started writing stories with Ven, his master and Willow before the setting coalesced in my head, but there always was modern technology around – I mentioned watching television and using a computer in the very first things where Ven was named. And I studied Classics at university, the late Republic and early Empire have always fascinated me, and it didn't really take much for the stories to slide sideways and Master's house to end up looking like a Roman town-house in my head. And things snowballed from there! 

Because I post unbeta'd and my very first things had been written and completed before the setting was fully realised as Ancient Rome, there are one or two inconsistencies I will eventually (probably) edit out, but they're only very minor details. (I have the master wearing trousers in a couple of places, which is a hangover from the days before he became a toga'd Roman citizen in my head. I either need to refer to that more, or drop it completely! And the same with Ven's hair, which was long in the very first story and has been completely unmentioned since, by everyone. Apart from one half-hearted attempt to remind myself he's got longer hair.) This is also where all the kneeling came from in the first place.

 **What's the inspiration for Ven?**  
Ven is _very_ loosely based on an original RPG character I played years ago, in a completely different setting. I think it's more fair to say the RPG character was the inspiration, Ven is the resulting character and they're a little alike in terms of looks and temperaments, but their overall personalities and backgrounds are quite distinct from one another. (And I'm no longer playing that RP OC.) Also, some people have noticed one or two similarities to Yves, a character in Maculategiraffes' Slave Breakers stories, which was unintentional but understandable.

 **What's the inspiration for DVM?**  
Um. No clue, really. I wanted someone who'd put Ven through all sorts of BDSM stuff, I guess. He just ended up being a rich Roman citizen who owned a chain of high-class adult shops (which also sell things any slave owner might need, even those who don't have sex with their slaves) and enjoys showing his slave off while also demonstrating his products. He just... happened.

 **Does the master have a name?**  
(Wow, how long ago did I start writing this FAQ stuff?!)

He didn't even have a real description in my head when I first started writing him; I had three different ideas for what he could look like! I have a much clearer picture of what he looks like now, and I've been thinking about a name. It'll coalesce in my head at some point and I'm sure I'll eventually give a name and description in a story... though I'd be really interested in how you're all imagining he looks! But yes, he does have the full three names of a Roman citizen. (OTOH, if you all prefer him to just keep on being 'the master', that'll work too.) It's hardly a spoiler to remind you he's Drusus Varius Metellus, known to us and his online fans as DVM.

I still mostly refer to him as 'the master' because the majority of stuff is written with Ven as my focal character, even if it's not specifically his POV.


End file.
